Commercial businesses continuously look for mechanisms and techniques that provide convenience to their customers, particularly with respect to performing convenient retail transactions. As a result, customers have begun to demand more convenience, and convenience has become an increasingly important factor when customers are considering where to purchase goods and services. Retail outlets, whether online or brick and mortar, that provide their customers with higher degrees of convenience often hold a competitive advantage over those retail outlets that do not.
Despite the high value that today's customers place on convenience, other considerations that arise as a result of providing convenience to customers must be considered by retail outlets. Often, as a result of providing customers with an added degree of convenience, the security of a customer's finances can be detrimentally affected. Gone are the days where the financial implications of having a wallet stolen are capped by the amount of cash that was contained in the wallet at the time. The convenience associated with credit or debit cards also carry that risk of substantial financial implications when account numbers and passcodes are stolen.
Additionally, an increasing number of financial transactions are handled via a network, such as the Internet. As more and more transactions take place, the level of vulnerability to hackers and thieves to acquire sensitive information such as account numbers, passcodes, and personal identification numbers also increases. In this regard, a virtual stolen wallet is equally, if not more, dangerous to a customer's finances.
Retail outlets, as well as other entities involved in transactions with sensitive information, such as account numbers and passcodes, must consider the information security implications that arise from providing these conveniences to customers. Accordingly, solutions that provide convenience in a manner that maintains a high degree of information security are advantageous.